Saigon has a very different vibe to the rest of Vietnam. In fact it feels totally different to anywhere we have visited so far. The main reason for this is by how modern and western it feels. Big wide streets, wide footpaths, parks dotted around the city and a real hustle and bustle feel. The parks are filled with people, day and night, break dancing, yoga and playing games. There are fitness machines in the park free of charge to use when you want (when it’s about 10 degrees cooler I’ll consider using them). There are huge hotels costing hundreds of dollars per night and equally large and flashy shopping centres. It’s one week to Christmas and the shopping centres are decked out in full Christmas livery, enough to rival London in scale and quality. Many tourists are flocking here not to shop but to have their photo taken in front of the oversized snowmen and giant reindeer, covered in fake snow and bright lights. Most impressive of all are the neon lights on the buildings. Saigon could almost be a giant Christmas tree itself. Some streets are lined with lights and a number of the higher buildings have impressive light shows going on. The food is also fantastic. This evening we had Greek food. At the end of the street is a fish & chip restaurant. Italian, American, French, everything is here. Bars galore. A bakery selling proper croissants and pain au chocolat is now our usual breakfast location. This is a great city and we’re enjoying our time here. Posted from Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City,...

When wandering around the city last night we could see a tower taller than all others in the city, covered with hundreds of white lights. You can just see it in the background rising above the other buildings. Today we were walking by the river and saw it from another angle. It had a platform sticking out of it near the top. At first I thought this might be some kind of observation deck, but as we kept looking neither of us saw any movement up there. It then became obvious that it was a helipad and not an observation deck, but I had seen the building listed on Trip Advisor so I was pretty sure we could get in and take a look. The tower is the Bitexco Financial Tower and it is the second highest building in Vietnam (it was the highest until 2011). We walked into the lobby and saw some guys asking about getting up to the bar. Their clothes wouldn’t be out of place on a beach but were totally out of place in that building, so we tagged along. We were shown into the lift which would take us to the 50th floor, in about 20-30 seconds. It must have been shifting at a huge rate but it was so smooth, we couldn’t detect any movement and if it wasn’t for our ears popping every few seconds we’d have been none the wiser. Once on the 50th floor we were escorted to another lift to whisk us up the final few floors to the 52nd. We were looking around in amazement, after all this was the highest building we’d ever been in, when a waitress came over and told us we had to order a drink to be allowed to stay. That sounded fine so we accepted the menu. The drinks were between 250,000 and 350,000 Dong per glass, that’s about £8-£10 for a beer or vodka or whiskey. Whoa – we spent a minute or so agonising over whether to pay that much for a drink. We decided we wouldn’t do it again so why not? The good news is the drinks weren’t to UK measures; you could really taste the alcohol in the drink. As it turns out it’s not a bad price. To go to the 49th floor there is 200,000 Dong fee (per person). So the drinks are normal price with the 200,000 added to them. We got to watch the sunset from the 52nd floor looking over Saigon. The windows were very dirty, so very few photos came out OK, but to sit and watch the city light...

We bought the Sony NEX-6 for this trip. It is small and lightweight but has interchangeable lenses so we can swap depending on the type of photography we want (usually landscape or close up). We have the 16-50mm and the 55-210mm lenses. The 16-50 is fantastic, it has a large range but is such a compact lens. This gives us a picture quality on par with lower end DSLR cameras but for a fraction of the weight and size. But a few days ago the lens stopped focusing properly, it would zoom in and out then turn the camera off. As we are a long way from home and won’t be anywhere we can call home for at least a year our options are pretty limited. We contacted Sony who gave us a possible solution, which didn’t work. They have been no more help since. That’s just great, dropped in the shit by poor quality from a company you wouldn’t expect this; especially after paying such a large price tag. A new lens is coming out imminently (was due out in September), the 18-105mm. That is a prime, top of the range lens that would be great for this trip. But we can’t buy it yet! A 16-70mm lens is available but the reviews we have read have slated the build quality as very poor and a let down. We can’t risk buying that and finding we have a bought a bad one. Today we headed down to the Sony center (a 10 minute walk from our hotel) to look at our options. The only decent choice we could make was to get another 16-50mm (identical to the faulty lens) and hope. In the shop Annemarie swapped our lens with one on display and tested it. No focus issues. Then just to be sure she put our lens back on; the problem could not be reproduced. We tried and tried and the camera wouldn’t fail in the way that it has failed every 10 seconds for the past couple of days. At a loss we decided to stick with our lens and see how long we could make it last. Outside we took many pictures of Saigon by night and the camera just wouldn’t fail. Finally we got back to the hotel and reviewed the pictures and it failed. Sod’s law huh? First thing tomorrow is to go back and buy the lens. So thanks Sony. We paid a premium for what we thought was good quality and reliable camera and it turns out not to be the case. —- UPDATE 1 —- Today we visited the Sony shop...

Today was our first day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and we booked a tour to take us well out of the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are a massive network of tunnels built during the 50s and 60s to hide Vietnamese soldiers and allow them to attack the enemy then disappear. Originally used against the French then expanded during the Vietnam war against the Americans. We were led into the forest and shown a normal piece of ground. Our guide then started knocking on the ground and in the third tap the sound was a hollow knock. Shifting a couple of leaves revealed a trap door covering s very small hole. Viet Cong soldiers would emerge from the tunnels, lay booby traps or mines then slip back underground unnoticed. The hole was tiny and only just wider than our skinny Vietnamese guide. We were then shown many types of traps laid out to maim or kill American soldiers. Most of these involved some kind of trap door over a hole filled with spikes. Either spikes on rollers, spikes on the edge to clip the armpits, or many other variations all of which would be pretty horrific to actually witness. We saw how air vents were hidden from sight and also how the smoke from cooking was hidden. About halfway through we had to chance to shoot from real machine guns with live ammunition. Having never seen something like this before and gun ranges not been in the usual tourist destinations I leapt on the chance (see here for the video). That was great fun although all my shots missed the target by some distance. I got closest to the target when I posted the gun quite a long way off target. Then the highlight of the tour was getting the chance to go into the tunnels themselves and actually try to make your way to the next exit. The exits are at 25m, 50m, 75m and 100m. Not really a long way but once you get into the tunnel suddenly it feels a lot further. The tunnels are mostly at a height where you can stand bent 90 degrees at the waist and knees bent, this means you can make reasonable progress. But the height of the tunnel will often reduce to the point at which you have to crouch and waddle along. This was a painful method and after maybe one minute in total my legs had had enough. A few sections of the tunnel were so low going on hands and knees was the only way. Out of our group of 50 only...